Satsang/Life Enquiry Archive

Knowing the Real from the unreal

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."
Marjorie Williams The Velveteen Rabbit

It appears to take time and dedication to wake up. To become Real... To become authentic in our acceptance of our
naivety and messiness, our disfunctionality and our longing for love.

Real is when all your hair has been rubbed off, says the Skin Horse! When there is no need for humility because the
illusory wounds have been seen and accepted. When there no pull to hide any more there is no longer any separation
between your true identity and what you imagine you would prefer to be, your idea of what might look or feel better.

The Song of Rahu speaks of the ultimate acceptance of the shadow... When nothing is resisted and we are fully present
in every moment, all is experienced as real.

Real is your own authentic embodied presence shining through your whole story, whatever it may be.
Staying present and practicing Self Enquiry is your way to distinguish the Real from the unreal.
And only your own Enquiry will reveal this. Only you can discover this!

The True Purpose of Relationship

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense."Rumi

All relationship is ultimately with our own Self!

However we seem to exist in a sea of multiple relationships apparently serving different purposes!
So we will explore how to live in this apparently paradoxical world. How to meet in that Heart Field
where all "differences" donít make any sense and seem to spontaneously resolve.

Relationships are for shining on each other! For enhancing what already is! This applies to all
relationship, intimate or otherwise. Musical notes together make chords, changing the way we
experience the note. Our authentic attention to "another" increases the harmony, the love, and
expands the abundant energy of another. Adds value! And this benefits all who encounter such a
source of radiant power. Like the sun!

Come and enquire! Uncover that secret behind all relationship!

And discover what to do when our relationships donít seem to work.

A Life Enquiry into Truth and Authentic Life.

Authentic Nourishment

Our monthly Satsang is evolving into a Cooperative Enquiry into Truth and Authentic Life. It is time for
everyone to take a more dynamic role in this process of enquiry. Everyone has a question, whether conscious or not.
This is now a mini workshop and the way to participate from now on is to look at the theme for the month
before the meeting, to reflect on it and search your heart for YOUR question related to the topic.
Post your question on the event page when you book or email it to me . You must do this
before coming along. Any difficulty with this please email me to ask.

The Enquiry for this month is on 16th November at the usual time of 7.30pm. The theme for our Enquiry is Authentic Nourishment. This is inspired by the words ďMan doth not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of GodĒ.

There appear to be so many questions and challenges about food and health these days, and our topic, while open to addressing these, goes deeper than a simple enquiry into food into what is nourishment itself? With questions about support and need, questions about poverty and lack.

"Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, yet even Soloman in all his glory is not arrayed as one of these."

The whole process of reflection, posting and considering, whether or not your particular question is addressed directly at the gathering leads to the illumination of your enquiry.

True identity - Beyond the illusion of control and surrender.
Who is really running the show?

LOVE IS THE MASTER

Love is the One who masters all things;
I am mastered totally by Love.
By my passion of love for Love
I have ground sweet as sugar.
O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;
How could I know where I will be blown next?
Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny
Reveals himself a liar and a fool;
What is any of us but a straw in a storm?
How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?
God is working everywhere his massive Resurrection;
How can we pretend to act on our own?
In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a sack;
Sometimes Love hoists me into the air,
Sometimes Love flings me into the air,
Love swings me round and round His head;
I have no peace, in this world or any other.
The lovers of God have fallen in a furious river;
They have surrendered themselves to Love's commands.
Like mill wheels they turn, day and night, day and night,
Constantly turning and turning, and crying out. Rumi.

You are warmly invited to send in any questions you may have by email.
Space is limited so please book early and arrive in time! Attendance is by invitation and prior
booking only. I love you to invite friends but please ask in advance.
If you are coming for the first time, email me. for directions.

Wednesday 19th October 7.30 to 9.30pm

Keys to Enlightened LivingCreating a Diamond Life!

Life is already this jewel of existence, already eternally forming and reforming, without beginning and without end. Witnessing alone enhances and polishes this diamond.

Which identity will you choose? That of the fragmented mind which sees the glittering surface of the ten thousand things and enquires no further? Or that of the Heart which simply sees Itself, the Real, quietly shining through and as all... and delighting in that timeless presence?

"One look from you and I see you in all things looking back at me
Those eyes in which all things live and burn." Rumi

Curiosity... to enquire and wonder... and to find out for yourself directly what you are....what all this world is....This is the first magical key to true freedom... to discovering your diamond life.

The Rhythm of Abundance

Love your whole story! Live passionately! Dance to the rhythm of your own abundant nature! Express fully!
Give birth to all of your desire. Shine all of your light into this world. Embrace it all and know that
you are that kiss of life.

Download whatever treasure you see! Imagine what only you can imagine! In your way! In reference to your own
heart! Create your unique embodiment! Your own work of art.

Living with an attitude of duty and strategy, a lukewarm existence of compromise slows down your flow.
Water the seeds of your passion and live authentically as what only YOU know and love. Be that infinite
well of living water.

As we commit to living spontaneously, creating our delight and our bliss, we turn attention from the
stagnation of lack to the movement of creation. Itís like turning on the light in a dark room.
Like that jewel of the sunlight at dawn! Where did the absence of light go?

So choose something! Anything you enjoy! Right now. And begin to love it. Start to tend your inner
garden and watch your life blossom... into paradise.

Come and explore the rhythm of your heartís desire... expanding from a trickle of survival to the pulsating flow
of abundance!

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, 'How much is that?' Oh, I'm just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."
What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

Rumi

Wednesday 10th August 7.30 to 9.30pm

Knowing the Real from the Unreal

It is not difficult to distinguish the Real from the unreal. The Mind fragments into the
ten thousand things and attempts to listen to the original sound in a valley of echoes,
see the original face in a hall of mirrors. Shifting perception from the fragmented mind in
separation, to that of the illumined mind in union with the Heart, makes it all totally obvious.
The Heart knows without question. The nervous system is full of bliss as the Real is tasted
and we fall into sudden spontaneous resonant silence.

As in Siegfried Sassoonís beautiful poem.

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on--on--and out of sight.

Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away ... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

Experience is not the Real when seen through the mind, but when it is seen with the eye of the Heart,
it flows of its own accord, and we can taste what moves with that spontaneity. We love it and the
ground we stand on becomes holy ground. When truly loved and embraced our whole life becomes
Real.Our whole story is transformed, becomes Real.

The Path of Relationship and Beyond

In this gathering we shall be exploring the pleasure and the challenge of relationship ....and more.

Relationships are for expression, for the simple enjoyment of being, intricate combinations of harmonies like
the resonance of musical notes. And the dissonances also serve, uncovering our patterns, enabling us to
allow them to be consumed. The Real delights in the whole story.

The path of relationship can be an alchemical process, a path of transformation and joy,
playing with experience and then withdrawing of projection till only One is realised. A path of
union, of ultimate realisation.

Self enquiry in the Heart, right in the midst of relationship, reveals that authentic Presence beyond
experience, which exists prior to all other. Ultimately your relationship is with your Self.

An Extract from A Dialog between Maitreyi and Yajnavalkya

Everything is the Self....

Yajnavalkya said:

"Verily, not for the sake of the husband, my dear, is the husband loved, but he is loved for the sake of the self which, in its true nature, is one with the Supreme Self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the wife, my dear, is the wife loved, but she is loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the sons, my dear, are the sons loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of wealth, my dear, is wealth loved, but it is loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the animals, my dear, are the animals loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the brahmin, my dear, is the brahmin loved, but he is loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the kshatriya, my dear, is the kshatriya loved, but he is loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the worlds, my dear, are the worlds loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the gods, my dear, are the gods loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the Vedas, my dear, are the Vedas loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the beings, my dear, are the beings loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.
"Verily, not for the sake of the All, my dear, is the All loved, but it is loved for the sake of the self.

Who Is The Other?

Who is this other that we encounter everywhere?
These eyes we meet, in the house, in the street?
Who and what are we looking at?

"One look from you
and I see you in all things
looking back at me...
those eyes in which all things live and burn"
Rumi

Kishori will read from a selection of her earliest poetry of perceiving through the eyes of a child, and share
how her first experiences of illumination changed her perception of the world forever.
Everything is alive. Everything is conscious. The universe is our lover and responds to us.

Forthcoming topics will include "What is the Shadow?", "What is True Nourishment?" ,
"What is Enlightenment?" Send in your questions and suggestions for themes.

Space is limited so reserve your place early! Please introduce and request invitations for
friends in advance so we know who would like to attend!

The Mystery of Relationship -- The Joy and the Challenge!

Whether in or out or in-between, we are all in this play together!

All relationship is to simply enhance your joy. When you approach the other with
expectation and need, however, it will cause a distortion, the experience of challenge or
a collusive re enforcing of the pattern. Relationships are not sticking plaster!! With understanding,
willingness and acceptance, a relationship can also be an amazing opportunity to create clarity
and healing of our wounds. Everyone is your own Self, reflecting either your authenticity or your
conditioning. There is no other. Ultimately, every relationship is with your own Self.

The Open Secret - There Is No Other

There is an open secret about fully enjoying your life!....To growing from
being a Pinocchio, a wooden puppet on automatic pilot..... to becoming REAL, being a full
spectrum, authentically embodied, fully alive human being! Being free!

First thing that you need to know is that "There Is No Other"... You are it all...
the script writer, the producer, the director, the star of the show and all
the supporting characters!

Everything in your life, your mind and your body, you have put there
yourself. It is all you- Either by deliberate choice or by default because you never knew
you had the power to change the coordinates, or the script of the movie you
are "projecting" on the screen of your life.

This is the number one Open Secret. Accept this at least as a working concept and we are half way home.

Next is the desire to be the director, script writer, producer...... and
step out of your movie, your story, long enough to review it with detachment
of a critic of the latest blockbuster.

Review the script, the performance, the direction etc....Review the
performance and success of the star... YOU!

Are you getting what you truly desire?

Learn how to get good at making and starring in movies!

Reality Training is designed for precisely this! It has the full tool box!

You can write new scripts, attract new funding, train in authentic
acting, learn the language of communicating with the various characters
in your movie to make the best blockbusting
entertainment of all time. For you and all involved!

There truly is nobody else out there!

Be Your Genius - Dare to own the Wonder of your Shadow!

What value can there be in our experienced inability to be all we might consciously choose to be?

How to allow the integration of what we don't want?

What lies behind the seemingly unintelligent chaos in our lives and the larger world, accidents, mistakes?

What part do resistance and inertia play in our life?

What is it to "let go"?

How do we find the paradoxical treasure, that wonder hiding in the shadow?

The evening will begin with a performance of The Song of Rahu, written by Jeanette, a challenging exploration of the personal and collective shadow and its role in the evolutionary process.

The Transforming Power of Vulnerability

We are triune beings - conscious, unconscious and superconscious.

As we evolve and detach from our former limited identification with the conscious mind to allow in more of
who we are, we feel unsure, vulnerable. This transformation is a necessary part of unfolding into our true
identity. Inviting in the new, the unknown, is to live on the cutting edge of life.
To embrace our inevitable vulnerability in this evolutionary process brings power and authentic wisdom.

What Is True Commitment?

Choosing to follow authentic inner direction

Real commitment is only to follow what your heart says, right now. If your heart says, ĎTime to go for a walk by the sea.í, then only you can know that. No other form can know that feeling.

...If you are playing a particular note in an orchestra, only that note knows what it feels like to be sounded as that note...no other note can say; ĎYou should be like me!í Commitment is not a heavy thing. Itís commitment to being only what you are and what you
know in every breath; and if you feel any worry or anxiety about
commitment, you are in the past or the future.

And the lighter we make it, the more we follow what we know, then the more the energy flow is there.